A study on residents` quality of urban life in Wangsa Maju area, Kuala Lumpur city, Malaysia

Abstract

The well-being of Malaysians has improved significantly throughout the last 12 years, and the public now enjoys better services. Based on the new Malaysian Wellbeing Index (MWI) which replaced the Malaysian Quality of Life Index (MQLI), there was a significant increase by 25.4 points during the period from 2000 to 2012. While Mercer’s quality of living (2012) ranked Kuala Lumpur 80 out of 207 cities; however, these indexes do not match the quality of urban life at the city level, and there is a significant need to investigate the quality of urban life of Kuala Lumpur city which intends to A World Class City by 2020. Moreover, investigating the quality of urban life of Kuala Lumpur city requires working on neighborhood level which is the main determinant of the overall quality of life of Kuala Lumpur. Therefore, this research is undertaken to study the quality of urban life of Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur. The literature review of works regarding the theoretical framework of quality of urban life with their applications in certain urban areas was undertaken. The researcher finds out that the subjective assessment of the quality of urban life which depends on people’s perception is more suitable for the neighborhood level. The key aim of the research is to examine the overall quality of urban life in Wangsa Maju Area, Kuala Lumpur based on residents’ perception. A questionnaire survey was undertaken with a sample size of 200 as the primary data of the research. Several types of data analysis were conducted to obtain results such as descriptive statistics, satisfaction levels, correlation matrix analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). From the findings, it was found that the residents’ assessment of the overall quality of urban life in Wangsa Maju was “good”. Having the correlation matrix analysis for the overall satisfaction levels of all quality of urban life sectors with the overall assessment of quality of urban life in neighborhood, the researcher finds that the overall assessment of quality of urban life in neighborhood is most significant when correlated to overall satisfaction with spiritual life. From SEM, The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is employed to achieve model good fit as found in the literature based on certain criteria. Also a part by part analysis revealed that Malays are more concerned with their spiritual life compared to the other races. Afterward, the study has made several recommendations towards improving Wangsa Maju residents’ satisfaction and the quality of urban life. Finally, a suggestion was made for further research on related topics.